Lexicon morphology (Cognate) (Inflection)

Features of Indo European Languages

Phonology Syntax Cognate Words In The Indo- European Languages

• Words of a similar structure and of similar or in many instances identical meanings in various languages of the Indo-European group.

• Cognate means common origins (Lat. co- and gantus which means ‘born together’) The Verb ‘bear, carry’

Sanskrit Greek Latin Ghothic Old English

bhar pher fer bair ber

Are all the development of the Indo-European word ‘bher’ Cognate Words

• Cognate words DO not necessarily look much alike: their resemblance may be disguised by sound shifts that have occurred in the various languages of the Indo-European group.

• English ‘work’ and Greek ‘ergon’ , for example, are superficially unalike, but they both developments of Indo-European ‘wergom’ and therefore are cognates. Cognate Words

• Numerals from one to ten; the word meaning the sum of ten tens ( Latin “cntum,” Avestan “satem,” English “hundred”)

• Words for certain bodily parts (heart, lung, head, foot)

• Words for certain natural phenomena (air, night, star, snow, sun, moon, mind)

• Certain plant and animal names (beech, corn, wolf, bear)

• Certain cultural terms (yoke, mead, weave, sew)

• monosyllables that pertain sex and excretion (e.g. modern English “fart” likely derived from Indo-European “perd”. • Non-Germanic: Latin, Greek, Welsh

• Germanic: English, Icelandic, Dutch

• Non-Germanic d corresponds to Germanic t

• Non-Germanic t corresponds to Germanic θ Inflection in The Indo-European Languages

• All the Indo-European Language are inflective— that is, all are characterized by grammatical system based on modifications in the form of words, by means of inflection (that is, endings and vowel changes) (e.g. Sing, sings, sang, sung, singing), to indicate such grammatical functions as case, number, tense, person, mood, aspect, and the like.

Case Changes related to nouns and pronouns Person First person, second person

Number Singular, plural Mood Imperative, inductive, question

tense Past, present, ... aspect Time and verb: perfect, continuous, ...

• The older inflection system is very imperfectly represented in most modern languages: English, French, and Spanish, for instance, have lost much of the inflectional complexity that was once characteristic of them; German retains considerably more, with its various forms of the noun and the article and its strong adjective declension. Sanskrit, however, retains much that has been lost or changed in other Indo-European languages’ inflectional system. Verb Inflection

SANSKRIT

bhara-mi I bear

bhara-si thou bearest

bhara-ti he/she beareth

bhara-mas we bear bhara-tha you bear

bhara-nti they bear Verb Inflection

Greek Latin pherο fero pherei-s fer-s pherei fer-t phero-mes (Doric) feri-mus phere-te fer-tis phero-nti (doric) feru-nt Noun Infection

• Indo-European nouns were inflected for eight cases (declension):

• Nominative: subject of a sentence (They saw me.)

• Vocative: person addressed (Students, listen!)

• Accusative: direct object (They bought a car.)

• Genitive: possessor or source ( Jack’s pen)

• Dative: indirect object or recipient (give her a hand)

• Ablative: what is separated (he abstained from it)

• Locative: place where (we stayed home)

• Instrumental: means, instrument (she ate with chopsticks) Indo-European noun declension OLD INDO-EUROPEAN SANSKRIT GREEK LATIN OLD IRISH ENGLISH Singular Noun *ekwos asvas hippos equus ech eoh Voc. *ekwe asva hippe eque eich Acc. *ekwom asvam hippon equum ech n- eoh Gen. *ekwosyo asvasya hippou equi eich eos Dat. *ekwoy asvaya hippoi equo eoch eo Abl. *ekwod asvad equo Loc. *ekwo asve Ins. *ekwo asvena Plural N.-V. *ekwos asvas hippoi equi eich eos Acc. *ekwons asvan (s) hippous equos eochu eos Gen. *ekwom asvanm hippon equorum ech n- eona *ekwobh(y) D.-Ab. asvebhyas hippios equis echaib eom os Loc. *ekwoysu asvesu *ekwoys asvias Word order in IE languages

• Recent focus on other grammatical matters such as word order.

• VO languages e.g English

• OV Languages e.g. Japanese

• Proto Indo-European languages were mainly OV

• Existing Indo-European languages are generally VO IE Culture

• IE culture was advanced than that of some groups of people living today

• They had complex sense of family relationships

• They could court

• They made use of gold, sliver, copper, iron

• they were small farmers not nomads

• They had domesticated animals

• They had religious feelings IE Homeland

• The difficulty of the exact Indo-European homeland

• Names of plants and animals give clues:

• Cognates of words for trees that grow in certain climates

• alder, apple, ash

• olive, cypress, palm

• Cognates of animals living in certain areas

• Wolf, bear, lax (Old English: Leax Salmon)

• They

• combined farming with herding and were mobile people,

• Built fortified palaces on hilltops,

• Had a highly developed belief in life after death.